Cuba

Cuba has been the reference point of the cigar world for centuries. The terroir of the Vuelta Abajo in the west of the island — soils, climate and generations of experience — shapes the unmistakable character of the Habano.

Terroir and regions

The most important growing areas lie in the province of Pinar del Río. Sun, red soil and a warm, humid climate produce tobacco that has been copied worldwide but never equalled.

From Myth to the Present

The myth of the Habano is older than any brand: already in the nineteenth century, “Havana” in Europe simply meant the finest cigar money could buy. The Revolution of 1959 changed everything — the industry was nationalised, many tobacco families went into exile and built new terroirs in Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. On the island itself, the craft remained: in the state manufactories, torcedores hand-roll the great marques to this day, marketed worldwide since 1994 through Habanos S.A.

The present is more ambivalent than the myth. The US embargo continues to keep Habanos out of the world’s largest single market, and crop failures and supply shortages have made them noticeably scarce in some years. At the same time, the New World has matured and long since meets Cuba as an equal. The reference, however, remains: anyone growing tobacco for premium cigars anywhere in the world measures themselves against the Vuelta Abajo. How much of that reference the present day can still sustain is explored in Is Cuba Still the Measure of All Things?